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Asked by anon-175499 to Ella, Alex on 13 Jun 2018. This question was also asked by anon-175503.
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Ella Mercer answered on 13 Jun 2018:
In my research we don’t do brain surgeries but I can try and tell you a little bit about it! When we have an operation, one of the reasons we’re put to sleep is so when the surgeon cuts us open we don’t feel any pain. HOWEVER, the cool part of our brain is that it doesn’t feel any pain!! For some operations (but not all) the patients stay awake when you perform the surgery. An example of this is if a patient has brain cancer that is close to very important parts of the brain, such as the bit that lets us move. Before the surgeon removes the cancer they will make a brain map my activating different parts of the brain and seeing how the patient acts. If they activate a piece of the brain and the patient moves then they know this is a very important piece that can’t be taken out during the operation! If the patient was asleep they wouldn’t move if the surgeon activated the movement bit of the brain, so the surgeon wouldn’t know it’s an important piece and might accidently take it out!
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Alex Alamri answered on 14 Jun 2018:
Hi that’s a good question and that’s what people often think.
They’re not always awake for surgery. We only do that when we absolutely need to.
Sometimes when people have a lump in their brain or brain cancer, it can be right next to really important parts of the brain that are responsible for moving your arms or legs or even speaking.
We try to remove as much as possible of the tumour without harming healthy parts of the brain. When the patient is awake we can go as close as possible to those important parts of the brain and make sure we don’t damage them.
Usually someone will be talking to the patient or testing their arms whilst we operate. As soon as the patient starts to feel odd sensations in their arms or legs, or if they find it difficult to speak, we stop operating.
I hope that helps!
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